The Wonderful World Of Auto-Tainment!
The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment! is the nineteenth episode of VeggieTales. Plot Act 1 At the start of the episode, the usual VeggieTales theme is subverted when Larry tells Bob that he's not doing the theme song, because "it's time to wake up and smell the future!" A door then opens in the middle of a white void as Bob and Larry enter the void, with Bob asking where they are, to which Larry answers that they're in the future. Bob quips that the future is white, before Larry tells him that the future has been white since the 70s, which Bob is surprised about because he didn't know that, before asking Larry about the theme song. Larry then answers that the future holds no theme songs, which confuses Bob, before Larry explains further that theme songs are too predictable, too repeatable, and too ordinary, and that the future is about the unpredictable, the un-ordinary, and the unexpected. Larry then puts on a chicken head, telling Bob that it's funny that he put on a chicken head because it's unexpected. After Bob tells Larry to take off the chicken head, Larry then goes on to explain that in the future, entertainment will be randomly generated, which Bob is confused about. Larry then tells Bob, "I've seen the future, Bob! And the future is Auto-Tainment!" The scene then switches to a room, with a wheel where a lot of the other veggies are held, a stage with sliding doors, and where Mr. Lunt is operating the whole operation. Bob and Larry then enter the room, where they meet up with the Ventrilo-Matic and Rusty (from 3-2-1 Penguins!), who greet them back. Bob is surprised when he sees that there are robots in the room, with Larry telling him that these robots represent the hosts of the future, and that unlike regular hosts, their humor can be randomly generated. The Ventrilo-Matic and Rusty demonstrate this by telling the famous "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke, before the Ventrilo-Matic comes up with the randomly generated punchline, "Weed eater". While Larry thinks that that's funny, Bob thinks that it doesn't make any sense, before Larry tells him that it's funny because it's unexpected. When Bob asks whatever happened to "it's funny because it's true," Larry answers "2 + 2 = 4 is true, but not funny." The Ventrilo-Matic then asks what the equation to 2 +2 is, before coming up the randomly generated punchline, "Weed eater", once again. Larry comments that it's a good one, while Bob is still unsure about this because he and Larry have a good thing going, and that he likes his job and that he doesn't want to give it up to a bunch of robots. Larry then tells Bob that he can't stand in the way of progress, saying that it's veggie versus machine, and that the machine has the upper hand, which Bob is confused about. Larry then explains to Bob how it works with Auto-Tainment, before gesturing to Mr. Lunt (who calls himself the Techno-Gourd of the future and that he secured future employment by becoming one of them) that he will engage what is called the 'Wheel of Veggies' and the 'Swarming Balls of Disorder'. Larry then explains that the Wheel of Veggies will choose a performer at random, while the Swarming Balls of Disorder will determine both the topic and genre of the song that the performer will sing. Once that's over with, Larry then tells the robots and Mr. Lunt to take it away. A choir then starts singing about The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment, with Bob telling Larry that at first the future didn't have theme songs, and Larry says that he didn't expect it, which makes it funny. At the same time that Larry introduces the Ventrilo-Matic and Rusty to the viewers, along with Mr. Lunt, the Techno-Gourd of the future. After the song ends, the Ventrilo-Matic then tells the joke "Where does a sheep go to get his hair cut?", before coming up with the randomly generated punchline, "So he says, 'What are you talking about? That's not my dog'". The Ventrilo-Matic then asks Mr. Lunt to stop the Wheel of Veggies, which then stops on the French Peas. The French Peas are then ejected towards the stage after that, before the Swarming Balls of Disorder come up with "Nautical Refuse" as the topic and genre of the song. Because of this, Jean-Claude and Phillipe then start singing "There's A Hole In The Bottom Of The Sea". After the song ends, the sliding doors then close, before the Ventrilo-Matic then asks Rusty how you sink a submarine full of peas, before coming up with the randomly generated punchline, "Your boat has not left the driveway in 15 years", to which Rusty says "You're killing me," before saying that next up, they have a very talented performer. The Wheel of Veggies then stops on Pa Grape, who is also ejected towards the stage as well, before the Swarming Balls of Disorder come up with "Biblical Dwarves" as the topic and genre of the song. Because of that, Pa then performs the classic biblical song, "Zacchaeus", singing about how Zacchaeus was a little man and that he climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to be seen, before Jesus and his disciples came along, with Jesus telling Zacchaeus to come down because he's coming to his house. After the song ends, Rusty then tells the Ventrilo-Matic that he has a lot in common with Zacchaeus, which the Ventrilo-Matic asks "What leads to that correlation?" before Rusty answers that "he was a tax collector in a tree, and I have a surge protector in my knee." Bob then notes that this was not a randomly-made joke and that it made sense, which Larry finds to be odd. The Ventrilo-Matic finds these similarities to be fascinating, before telling Rusty that he originated from the same parts facility, which Rusty takes offense to, saying "Hey! What did you say about my family?!?" The Ventrilo-Matic then tells Rusty that the inferred insult was unintentional, before Rusty tells him that he's just teasing him. The Ventrilo-Matic then introduces "a random short film on a randomly-based topic", before we are then treated to the animated short "Lunch" (which has been subtitled as "an animated parable"). Lunch (See the main page for the plot.) Act 2 After the short has ended, Rusty says "Somebody told me that was ice cream!" but the Ventrilo-Matic tells him "Negative, that would nullify the irony". The Wheel of Veggies then stops on the next performer, who is Archibald Asparagus. Archibald also gets ejected forward as well, before the Swarming Balls of Disorder then come up with "Military Intelligence" as the topic and genre of the song. With that, Archibald then performs Gilbert and Sullivan's "Modern Major General", to which he is in a library while showing different kinds of books. After the song ends, the Ventrilo-Matic and Rusty compliment Archibald for his performance before Rusty asks the Ventrilo-Matic if he heard the one about the asparagus who went door to door looking for work, the Ventrilo-Matic says "That data is not on file", before Rusty answers that "he meets this one fella who offers him $55 to paint his porch", before the Ventilo-Matic responds with "Such a transaction would be redeemed equitable". Rusty then says that the asparagus comes back in an hour and says, "I'm finished, but I think you should know your car is a Ferrari, not a Porsche". After the joke is over, the Ventrilo-Matic says, "That asparagus was clearly not as clever as the asparagus who just performed moments ago". Rusty is infuriated, saying that it would've taken the asparagus twice as long to paint the porch, with the Ventrilo-Matic saying that that would be dishonest, to which Rusty retorts with, "What, are you calling me a cheat?!?" While the argument goes on, Bob and Larry witness the whole thing, with Larry realizing that Rusty may be experiencing technical difficulties. Bob then says that hosts can't experience technical difficulties in the middle of the show, wondering what Rusty is so wound up about. Larry doesn't know, but he has an idea, so he hops off towards the stage, with Mr. Lunt telling him that he has to be randomly selected, but Larry tells him, "It's an emergency!" Soon, Larry is on a piano as he starts singing "You Are My Sunshine", before Junior Asparagus also joins in the song as well. After the song ends, Rusty is in a state of affection, telling the Ventrilo-Matic, "I love you". The Ventrilo-Matic is touched by Rusty's feelings, before asking him if he would like to see an aardvark singing opera, which Rusty agrees too, before we are treated to the next short "Binky The Opera Singer". Binky The Opera Singer Binky is an opera-singing aardvark (in a near similar matter to that of Willie the singing whale from Make Mine Music's "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At The Met") who sings "Largo Al Factotum" from "The Barber Of Seville". After Binky finishes singing, he is met with the sound of crickets chirping, before he indignantly walks off the stage afterwards. Act 3 After the short is over, Rusty apologizes to the Ventrilo-Matic for getting mad at him, to which the Ventrilo-Matic accepts his apology. Rusty then goes to tell the Ventrilo-Matic that he's his friend, before Bob then asks Larry what Rusty is doing. Larry then says that he may have cheered up Rusty too much, and that Rusty may possibly be developing randomly-generated emotions. Bob then retorts with "I thought his humor was supposed to be randomly generated!" Larry then says that Rusty may have a short circuit or something, before Bob angrily tells him that the future is not looking so hot. Despite that, Pa Grape has been selected as the next performer for the second time, before the Swarming Balls of Disorder come up with Big Band Big Donkey as the topic and genre of the song. Because of this, Pa sings "Erie Canal", complete with a stuffed mule serving as Sal, the mule in the song. After the song ends, Rusty is crying, with the Ventrilo-Matic asking him why he's crying, with Rusty answering that he doesn't know, and that he's just sad. However, he suddenly breaks out laughing after a few seconds, before he starts roaring like a bear. Bob has had enough of what's been going on and decides to put a stop to this nonsense. Bob then tells everyone that that's the end and that it isn't going to work, before saying that he's calling off the future. Bob then says that if he's looking at it, he doesn't like what he sees, as Rusty is now barking like a dog. Bob does not like the idea of randomly-generated jokes and randomly-generated emotions, saying that it's a big mess, before he says, "This has to be the worst day of my show business career!" Larry then apologizes to Bob, saying that he was certain that this was a great new way to teach the kids and teach them all kinds of lessons, before Bob infuriatingly says "Like how to tell nonsense jokes and be emotionally unstable?!?" Larry then says that they did hear some pretty cool songs, which Mr. Lunt agrees with. Bob then says that with all that went wrong, he wants to know where the lesson is. Because of this, Larry comes up with another idea, saying that he knows something they learned, before asking Mr. Lunt to cue up Junior, which Mr. Lunt consents to. Once Junior has been brought up, Larry then whispers an idea to Junior, which Junior agrees with. After that, Junior is then ejected towards the stage on Larry's command. Soon, Junior then performs the song "My Day", telling about how whether we have a good day or a bad day, God's love is still with us throughout our lives. After the song ends, Bob then realizes that Larry is right and that they did learn something, God loves us no matter what happens, before Larry adds even if we have a good day or a bad day, "even if our robots get all goofy". Bob then tells Larry that it's time to go home, which Larry agrees with, before saying "Goodbye, future." The Ventrilo-Matic then says goodbye to Bob and Larry, but Rusty is asleep. Bob and Larry are in the white void once again before they approach the door in the void, but not without Mr. Lunt following after them, asking them if he can have his old job back in the present, saying that the robots are freaking him out. The door then closes after they enter it, before the episode ends. After the episode ends, a clip from 3-2-1 Penguins! plays. Characters *Bob the Tomato *Larry the Cucumber *Ventrilomatic and Rusty *Mr. Lunt *Pa Grape *Scooter Carrot *Jimmy and Jerry Gourd *Laura Carrot *Junior Asparagus *Archibald Asparagus *The French Peas Songs *Auto-Tainment Theme Song *There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea *Zacchaeus *Modern Major General *You Are My Sunshine *Barber of Seville *Erie Canal *My Day Quotes :Oh, so now I'm being classified as unreasonable, huh?!? :A robot's classification is established at the time of assembling and therefore cannot be altered after- :Are you saying I was born obnoxious? :Earth is a characteristic unique to living entity. - Ventrilomatic and Rusty arguing Other Languages *自動化娛樂世界 (Mandarin) (Standard) *Autoholdningens vidunderlige verden (Norwegian) *O Maravilhoso Mundo do Auto-Sucesso! (Portuguese) (Brazil) *O Maravilhoso Mundo do Auto-Tenimento (Portuguese) (Portugal) *Čudoviti svet prihodnosti (Slovenian) *Thế giới Giải trí tự động (Vietnamese) Fun Facts Trivia *This was the first episode for several things: **The first and only episode not to have a central moral theme. **The first 2003 episode where Bob and Larry don't dress up in costumes for Cavis and Millward. **The first and only episode where Madame Blueberry does not make an appearance. **The first episode not to use Softimage software. **The first episode to have a short film. **The first episode to have the 2001-2003 logo, and not the logo from 1993 to 1997 and 1998 to 2000. **The first time Bob played the main antagonist of an episode. He turns nice at the end afterwards. **Speaking of which, some fans wrote letters saying they didn't like Bob being mean. **The first episode not produced by David Pitts. **The first episode where Bob and Larry argue. The second time was in the next episode. **The first and only episode not directed by Tim Hodge since his first directorial debut of Lyle the Kindly Viking. **The first episode not to have the theme song, the countertop or the Silly Song. *The episode held a record for the shortest production time, clocking in at two weeks. This beat the record previously held by Dave and the Giant Pickle, which took four months to produce. *This episode is notorious for its rushed animation quality, due to having an increased amount of animation errors compared to other episodes of its time, 2D assets, reused music, etc. *This episode has a laughter and applause track that plays throughout the video (with the exception of the beginning and end), and is the only episode in the entire series to include such a thing. **The laughter and applause track is used again in the series' reboot The VeggieTales Show. * All the songs were animated by three people. There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea and Zacchaeus was done by Keith Lango, Modern Major General and You Are My Sunshine was done by Joe McFadden, and Erie Canal and My Day was done by Christopher Hickman. *The Lunch short was animated by Keith Lango, and Barber of Seville was done by Ron Smith. *The songs from this episode are animated versions of the ones from four of the Sing-Alongs albums: Pirates' Boat Load Of Fun, Bob and Larry's Backyard Party, Bob and Larry's Sunday Morning Songs, and Junior's Bedtime Songs. *The episode is loosely based on The Wonderful World of Disney. *This episode can be featured in Lessons from the Sock Drawer, featuring Binky the Opera Singer, Modern Major General, and Lunch. *This episode was unpopular to the point where most international dubs of the show skipped this episode, and also possibly causing stores to remove this episode. *This is the only episode not to have Mr. Nezzer or Percy Pea since their debut appearances. Though they are credited at the end of the episode. *The episode was originally going to be released in October 29, 2002 (the same day The Star of Christmas was released), but was rescheduled back to May 20, 2003. Remarks *On the DVD and the Smile of the Child versions, some sound effects are missing compared to the VHS release. **The original version of the episode with these sound effects was included on the The Cucumber Collection DVD releases. *According to the commentary, Lisa Vischer couldn't make it in time to voice Junior so Mike Nawrocki filled in for the lines and edited them in a way that it would sound like Junior. *The way that Bob says "Okay Larry" differently makes it pretty obvious that the theme song is going to be twisted, because they re-recorded it instead of re-using the original to try and hide it. *It's unknown how Bob and Larry got to the Wonderful World of Autotainment, despite being stuck in the average white place. *In Zacchaeus, there are two foreign terms: **"Pequeño hombre feliz" is "happy little man" in Spanish. **"Le petit homme" is "the little man" in French. *Although not a goof, in "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea", Jean Claude calls Philipe his own name. *A majority of the decorations and props are not in 3D models, but are instead drawn on paper. *It's unknown how Junior joined in Larry's song, despite still being in the Wheel of Veggies. *It's unknown who left the door open slightly in a jolt just enough that Larry could slip inside and perform his song. *The back cover shows an unused screenshot of the Peas in Hole of the Bottom of the Sea, with Jean Claude standing forward and smiling. *While Larry and Junior are performing on a pickup truck in You Are My Sunshine, it is unknown who's driving the truck on an endless road. *It's impossible for Archibald to throw books back at their shelves perfectly while at full speed bouncing back and forth between shelves. *In Modern Major General, the books alternate between 2D graphics to full-fledged 3D objects. *It's physically impossible for Archibald to build a staircase of books that stays on while walking, especially one without anything supporting it. *Jimmy Gourd is seen in a chef's hat, but somehow while spinning the hat stays on him. *Despite Junior stating that walls are not for coloring, he ironically but perfectly graffitis a "no" sign flawlessly on a red crayon. *Pa Grape stated that Sal is on his foot, but as a grape, he has no feet. *The cover and Bob and Larry's promotional models depict them in futuristic-style costumes, which they never wore in the episode. **However, a prototype DVD cover for the episode as modeled by Ron Smith shows Bob and Larry's futuristic-style costumes. *Several websites state this episode was released in 2004, which is false as it actually came out in 2003. *According to the Behind the Scenes, the robot shot in Hole in the Bottom of the Sea is shot from a different angle from the actual episode. Similar in fashion to the inconsistent image error below, this could've been an alternative take. Fixed Goofs/Errors *In the first shot where Bob and Larry are hopping out the door, Bob’s nose turns darker red before returning to its light red color upon his arrival. *Throughout the episode, Mr. Lunt was missing his teeth. *When Larry is talking with the chicken hat on, his voice's quality slightly worsens, and restores after he takes it off. *One of the walls behind the Wheel of Veggies flickers as Bob and Larry are approaching the room. On a similar note, a shadow behind them disappears when Larry starts talking. **Larry's voice is also slightly worse in some shots. *The blue Auto-Tainment gates change between open and closed between shots. *Larry's body clips into Bob as he hops over to the Auto-Tainment doors. *Though not technically considered a goof, Larry's tooth is missing when he hops over to Bob in one frame before returning in the next. *When Bob moans "This has to be the worst day of my show business career!", his line is off lip-sync. *A goof was introduced in the Zacchaeus song in which Pa Grape completely disappears for a frame before returning in the next. *Upon each selection from the Wheel of Veggies, both the flinging and the Balls of Disorder take place on a white background. **The original version also features the balls on the Wheel of Veggies changing colors between shots. This doesn't happen in the DVD release. *Bob's mouth can be seen clipping into the ground on several occasions. *In the shot where Larry attempts to remind Bob that it is funny because it's unexpected if he doesn't make any sense but is interrupted by Bob, his tooth appears to be split in half. *In "Lunch", when Ed runs over to the food machine, he is shown throwing the bone into the bag, but Mozart has it in the next. **The bone also disappears. *There are many shots where shadows and various renders are missing; **The shadows on the Wheel of Veggies are out of place. **In the original version, Bob, Larry, and most characters and objects lose detail and their shadows in several shots, as often times noted in inconsistent detail shots. such as characters with no shadow detail and regaining the shadow detail in the next shot. This was fixed in the DVD release, in both versions Bob twitches during the shot. *There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea: **One shot shows the robot chorus have their mouths go off-sync. **One picture transition skips the first part. This skip happens between the frog and urinal pictures. **One picture changes without changing slides in the next shot. According to the commentary, the inconsistent image was originally a toilet and then they changed it to Lyle. *Modern Major General: **Archibald is shown stacking books in one shot, but on the next stacking part where they build stairs, it starts off with no books stacked. **The books are shown flying due to the abrupt ends and starts between shots. *You Are My Sunshine: **Junior twitches in one shot. **Larry is shown hovering in one shot. *My Day: **Though it may be intentional, "studied" is misspelled as "studigd". It is also possible that the "g" is really a backwards "e". **The dog under the bed is just a looping animation of him wagging his tail left and right. This animation error has been known both as "Dog's Tail Twitching" and "Dog's Tail Wagging Looping". *One wheel slot is shown empty in one shot. Since that empty slot is next to Junior, it would've been Jimmy Gourd that was missing. *After Mr. Lunt says "I've secured future employment by becoming one of them" in one shot, Bob's eyes are detached from his nose in the next shot. *Some shots show the veggies clipping through the wheel. *In the original version, when Bob tells everyone that the future was the end, his stem turns light green before returning to its darker green color upon his arrival. Though this was fixed in the DVD release, a goof was introduced which sees Bob clipping into the ground during the shot. **On a similar note, Bob's nose flickers as he's hopping to the Auto-Tainment doors. This doesn't happen in the DVD release. *In the original version, when Bob screams "How to tell nonsense jokes and be emotionally unstable?!?", something black appears on the right side of his nose and flickers in the shot afterwards. This doesn't happen in the DVD release. *At the end of the scene, Larry loses the chicken hat he wore it on his head earlier in the beginning of the episode. *In the 2003 version of the DVD release, during the end credits, the audio waves of the bass instrument in the score for Lunch were accidentally inverted, meaning it is heard lower in volume when you switch the DVD audio settings to MONO. This was corrected in later re-issues of the episode. *The Brazilian (Audio News) and Slovenian dubs leave out Phillipe's "There's a log in the hole in the bottom of the sea" dialogue during There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea song. **Bob also doesn't shout "All right, everyone!" in the Audio News dub, although he still moves his mouth as if he did. *When Bob and Larry are hopping back home at the end of the episode, Bob and Larry are seen clipping into the ground. Inside References *There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea has the following cameos in pictures: **Laura Carrot costume is shown. **"Bob" in the hole **Zidgel **Lyle **Frog is Iggy from Great Cheese Squeeze which was a book that Keith Lango made. **Jonah *Modern Major General: **One of the books has Larry as Lincoln. *My Day: **The underwear is from Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie. Real World References *There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea: **One of the pictures has a Very Hungry Caterpillar book in the background. **Weedeater is a term for any device/tool capable of cutting down grasses and weeds. **Another picture shows the Maya program of a log, which was used for the VeggieTales episodes. **A newspaper of an actual elephant attack can be seen as well. **"12 Wing Shearwater" **Chrysler is a car manufacturer. **The doll picture is known as Raggedy Ann. **Joliet is a city in real life, which was where Big Idea Studios used to be at one time. *Modern Major General has these references in book covers: **RMS Titanic was a ship that struck an iceberg. **Stonehenge **First US astronaut on the moon **"a2+b2=c2" *Erie Canal is a real canal, located in New York. Episode Transcript *Transcript Gallery Category:Episodes Category:VHS ��